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The Shape of Things to Come
When Dr Philip Raven, an intellectual working for the League of Nations, dies in 1930 he leaves behind a powerful legacy - an unpublished 'dream book'. Inspired by visions he has experienced for many years, it appears to be a book written far into the future: a history of humanity from the date of his death up to 2105. The Shape of Things to Come provides this 'history of the future', an account that was in some ways remarkably prescient - predicting climatic disaster and sweeping cultural changes, including a Second World War, the rise of chemical warfare, and political instabilities in the Middle East.
576 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1933
About the author
H.G. Wells
4,413 books10.1k followersHerbert George Wells was born to a working class family in Kent, England. Young Wells received a spotty education, interrupted by several illnesses and family difficulties, and became a draper's apprentice as a teenager. The headmaster of Midhurst Grammar School, where he had spent a year, arranged for him to return as an "usher," or student teacher. Wells earned a government scholarship in 1884, to study biology under Thomas Henry Huxley at the Normal School of Science. Wells earned his bachelor of science and doctor of science degrees at the University of London. After marrying his cousin, Isabel, Wells began to supplement his teaching salary with short stories and freelance articles, then books, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).
Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.
He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.
More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...
http://www.online-literature.com/well...
http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells
Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.
He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.
More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...
http://www.online-literature.com/well...
http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells
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November 27, 2022
SF Masterworks (2010 relaunch series) #93:
In a nutshell the history of the world for the next couple of centuries after this book was published in 1933, in which Wells shows a lot of insight for the near future but appears to go way off from around the mid-1940s onwards. Although a thought provoking and interesting read documenting the ups and downs of mankind as it moves towards the salvation of a world-state, the book reads like a history text book, and thus took me over four months to finish! A 6 out of 12 Three Star read.
2020 read
In a nutshell the history of the world for the next couple of centuries after this book was published in 1933, in which Wells shows a lot of insight for the near future but appears to go way off from around the mid-1940s onwards. Although a thought provoking and interesting read documenting the ups and downs of mankind as it moves towards the salvation of a world-state, the book reads like a history text book, and thus took me over four months to finish! A 6 out of 12 Three Star read.
2020 read
January 3, 2015
H.G. Wells looks into the future
8 August 2010
This book is what is termed as being future history and some say that it is an extension of HG Wells' historical text 'A Short History of the World'. It is suggested that what Wells is doing is using recent history to look forward to the next stage of human evolution. It is not the first time that he has done this, and in fact prior to World War I (which at the time was known as the great war) he had written some predictive texts such as 'The War in the Air' and 'The Land Ironclads', neither of which I had read at this time.
This book could be split into two sections, the first smaller section looking back to the immediate history of humanity, and the second section looking forward to what he was predicting as the coming Modern State, a one world government in which humanity was free from all of the restraints of the past and that each and every human being could reach their full potential. However, to get to that point, humanity would have to pass through a lot of pain.
As a historian HG Wells is brilliant. His analysis of the Great War, the Roaring Twenties, and the beginnings of the Great Depression show an incredible amount of insight. However this brilliance seems to dissipate as we move into his speculative future history of mankind. He gets quite a few things wrong but this is to be expected when one attempts to track the progress of humanity into the future. It is and will always be speculation.
First he is wrong about the Pacific War. He seems to think that the Japanese would become bogged down in China and that the United States would quickly enter the fray and bring the war in the Pacific to a quick conclusion. He is correct that China would turn communist, but also assumed that Japan would as well (which never happened as Japan signed a peace treaty with the United States before Russia could send troops onto the island and the the Japanese government ended up following along with the United States). Neither did he anticipate that the Japanese would be able to hold off until 1945.
While he was close with the timing of the Second World War, he was quite off with the causes, the duration, and the participants. He did not anticipate that Hitler would begin bringing German people living in neighbouring countries under the umbrella of the German State, nor did he anticipate his Blitzkriegs. In his version of the war numerous border clashes were fought and Britain never joined the fighting. Further, there was extensive use of gas warfare which never happened in the Second World War. Gas became a defensive weapon, meaning that it was used to prevent the other side from launching gas attacks. However he did anticipate the guided missile, otherwise known as the Air Torpedo.
Well, that is enough on his predictions and I will now look at how his Modern State developed and what it means. After the war, which ended in the exhaustion of all participants (and he did not envisage the economic benefits that the United States reaped from the conflict which threw them into an age of unprecedented prosperity), and then another period where the world was wracked by disease, an organisation similar to the United Nations arose which took control of all of the world's transportation systems and developed the Air Dictatorship. This, when I first considered it, sounded like what the United States is attempting to do today: enforcing its rule through the use of airpower. However, it had more to do with control of the transportation networks, which in turn moved to the control of education.
Education is very important in Wells' Modern State in that he believes (and I believe rightly) that it is through education that you mould a compliant state. It does take generations, but universal education, and control of the curriculum, is what will bring about the greatest change. He also talks of a gas he calls Pacifin, which is used to subdue unruly mobs. It is sort of like an anaesthetic which causes those exposed to it to become numb and cease rebelling. Some suggest that this is what 'illegal' drugs are doing today. While they are illegal, some believe that the governments allow their production and distribution to pacify the poorer classes (though this is not necessarily the case as a lot of middle and upper class individuals are drug users).
In Wells' future religion is suppressed far too easily, particularly Islam. Looking back from the world of fundamentalist religions, one questions whether the suppression of religion is all that easy. Many states have attempted to do it, and every one has failed. While there are very few Protestants in France today, as the saying goes, the blood of the martyrs waters the seed of the church.
I personally think Wells is a bit too optimistic when it comes to human nature. He seems to think that humanity will be able to evolve out of its barbarism, and while he acknowledges that these is still crime in his utopian state, humanity, in my opinion, seems to have been getting worse rather than better. I guess back in his time, after the horrors of the Great War and the destruction of the Great Depression, one needed to hope to look forward to a better future.
8 August 2010
This book is what is termed as being future history and some say that it is an extension of HG Wells' historical text 'A Short History of the World'. It is suggested that what Wells is doing is using recent history to look forward to the next stage of human evolution. It is not the first time that he has done this, and in fact prior to World War I (which at the time was known as the great war) he had written some predictive texts such as 'The War in the Air' and 'The Land Ironclads', neither of which I had read at this time.
This book could be split into two sections, the first smaller section looking back to the immediate history of humanity, and the second section looking forward to what he was predicting as the coming Modern State, a one world government in which humanity was free from all of the restraints of the past and that each and every human being could reach their full potential. However, to get to that point, humanity would have to pass through a lot of pain.
As a historian HG Wells is brilliant. His analysis of the Great War, the Roaring Twenties, and the beginnings of the Great Depression show an incredible amount of insight. However this brilliance seems to dissipate as we move into his speculative future history of mankind. He gets quite a few things wrong but this is to be expected when one attempts to track the progress of humanity into the future. It is and will always be speculation.
First he is wrong about the Pacific War. He seems to think that the Japanese would become bogged down in China and that the United States would quickly enter the fray and bring the war in the Pacific to a quick conclusion. He is correct that China would turn communist, but also assumed that Japan would as well (which never happened as Japan signed a peace treaty with the United States before Russia could send troops onto the island and the the Japanese government ended up following along with the United States). Neither did he anticipate that the Japanese would be able to hold off until 1945.
While he was close with the timing of the Second World War, he was quite off with the causes, the duration, and the participants. He did not anticipate that Hitler would begin bringing German people living in neighbouring countries under the umbrella of the German State, nor did he anticipate his Blitzkriegs. In his version of the war numerous border clashes were fought and Britain never joined the fighting. Further, there was extensive use of gas warfare which never happened in the Second World War. Gas became a defensive weapon, meaning that it was used to prevent the other side from launching gas attacks. However he did anticipate the guided missile, otherwise known as the Air Torpedo.
Well, that is enough on his predictions and I will now look at how his Modern State developed and what it means. After the war, which ended in the exhaustion of all participants (and he did not envisage the economic benefits that the United States reaped from the conflict which threw them into an age of unprecedented prosperity), and then another period where the world was wracked by disease, an organisation similar to the United Nations arose which took control of all of the world's transportation systems and developed the Air Dictatorship. This, when I first considered it, sounded like what the United States is attempting to do today: enforcing its rule through the use of airpower. However, it had more to do with control of the transportation networks, which in turn moved to the control of education.
Education is very important in Wells' Modern State in that he believes (and I believe rightly) that it is through education that you mould a compliant state. It does take generations, but universal education, and control of the curriculum, is what will bring about the greatest change. He also talks of a gas he calls Pacifin, which is used to subdue unruly mobs. It is sort of like an anaesthetic which causes those exposed to it to become numb and cease rebelling. Some suggest that this is what 'illegal' drugs are doing today. While they are illegal, some believe that the governments allow their production and distribution to pacify the poorer classes (though this is not necessarily the case as a lot of middle and upper class individuals are drug users).
In Wells' future religion is suppressed far too easily, particularly Islam. Looking back from the world of fundamentalist religions, one questions whether the suppression of religion is all that easy. Many states have attempted to do it, and every one has failed. While there are very few Protestants in France today, as the saying goes, the blood of the martyrs waters the seed of the church.
I personally think Wells is a bit too optimistic when it comes to human nature. He seems to think that humanity will be able to evolve out of its barbarism, and while he acknowledges that these is still crime in his utopian state, humanity, in my opinion, seems to have been getting worse rather than better. I guess back in his time, after the horrors of the Great War and the destruction of the Great Depression, one needed to hope to look forward to a better future.
September 9, 2019
After close to a year with lots of craziness going on I finally finished it. The audio version that is.
It was a good lesson on history and a play on history at the same time.
The narrator keep me intrigued during the whole time.
It was a good lesson on history and a play on history at the same time.
The narrator keep me intrigued during the whole time.
December 19, 2014
"The Shape of Things to Come" is many things but most importantly it is H.G. Wells' last significant work. It is also the embodiment of the Modernist Dream and an attempt to reconcile the horrors of World War I with the goals of the Enlightenment. While the story is firmly rooted in the British SF style of speculative fiction such as C.S. Lewis' "Space Trilogy" and Olaf Stapledon's "Last and First Men" and "Star Maker", it also provided the inspiration for the Golden Age writers of American science fiction. As you read Wells' methodical extermination of minority languages and cultures, religion in general, and nations and their peoples one begins to appreciate the innate revulsion that caused William Gibson to first attack Utopian science fiction in "The Gernsback Continuum" and, thereby, spawn a new generation of SF writers that popularized Postmodernity for America and the world.
But unfortunately, the components of Modernism still haunt our lives and Wells can still provide us with a clear understanding of our contemporary world in his writing such as the following passage:
"The Profit-Capitalist System was absolutely incapable of controlling the unemployment it had evoked and the belligerence it stimulated. It stagnated on its hoards. It fought against inflation and it fought against taxation. It died frothing economies at the mouth. It killed the schools on which public acquiescence rested. Impartially it restricted employment and the relief of the unemployed. Even on this plain issue of its police protection it economized. Impossible it said, to plan a new police when we cannot even pay for the police we have."
This view of a hyperactive capitalism is clearly the inspiration for Margaret Atwood's "MaddAddam Trilogy" and much of the new literary stable which is bringing well-crafted writing abilities to the ghetto genre of science fiction.
Wells also makes us reflect on the decline of democratic governance in our current societies:
"...Governments, that were in their last stage of ineptitude, were rotten with perpetual amendment and weakening of measures, with an endless blocking and barring of projects, with enfeebling bargains and blackmailing concessions. Against every directive body, every party in power, sat another devoting itself to misrepresenting, thwarting, delaying, and spoiling, often for no reason or for the flimsiest reasons...in the hope of degrading affairs to such a pitch of futility as to provoke a change of government that would bring the opposition into power. The opportunities of profit and advancement afforded in such a mental atmosphere to a disingenuous careerist were endless."
The author also reflects on our present growth of incarceration as a public-private concern:
"It had always been a strong tendency...to utilize the labour of offenders against the law. Forced labour seemed so just and reasonable a punishment that whenever the possibility of using it profitably appeared the authorities set themselves to multiply indictable offenses and bring luckless people into unpaid servitude....drawing its sustenance from their degradation, there is arising again an intricate tangle of exploiting classes, entrepreneurs, wholesalers, retailers, money-lenders,...politicians, private and corporation lawyers, investors and landowners..."
It makes one wonder where the borderline between convicts, Dubai-esque work permits, and temporary "cultural" visas begins and ends in our globalized labor markets. And within all of this Wells sees the seeds for populism of the New and Radical Right:
"There were organized religious and patriotic revivals....schools were discovered to be immoral, unpatriotic and antireligious. It was extraordinary how the money-changers hurried to the deserted temples and clamoured for the return of Christ. Every town and city found someone or other keen to revive and protect its privileges....Even men who were engaged in organizing debt-serf cultivation and debt-serf industrialism...appeared as generous supporters of and subscribers to the sacred cause of individual liberty."
It is truly a work that leaves all of us to pause - like Wordsworth - in our "...cheerful confidence in things to come."
But unfortunately, the components of Modernism still haunt our lives and Wells can still provide us with a clear understanding of our contemporary world in his writing such as the following passage:
"The Profit-Capitalist System was absolutely incapable of controlling the unemployment it had evoked and the belligerence it stimulated. It stagnated on its hoards. It fought against inflation and it fought against taxation. It died frothing economies at the mouth. It killed the schools on which public acquiescence rested. Impartially it restricted employment and the relief of the unemployed. Even on this plain issue of its police protection it economized. Impossible it said, to plan a new police when we cannot even pay for the police we have."
This view of a hyperactive capitalism is clearly the inspiration for Margaret Atwood's "MaddAddam Trilogy" and much of the new literary stable which is bringing well-crafted writing abilities to the ghetto genre of science fiction.
Wells also makes us reflect on the decline of democratic governance in our current societies:
"...Governments, that were in their last stage of ineptitude, were rotten with perpetual amendment and weakening of measures, with an endless blocking and barring of projects, with enfeebling bargains and blackmailing concessions. Against every directive body, every party in power, sat another devoting itself to misrepresenting, thwarting, delaying, and spoiling, often for no reason or for the flimsiest reasons...in the hope of degrading affairs to such a pitch of futility as to provoke a change of government that would bring the opposition into power. The opportunities of profit and advancement afforded in such a mental atmosphere to a disingenuous careerist were endless."
The author also reflects on our present growth of incarceration as a public-private concern:
"It had always been a strong tendency...to utilize the labour of offenders against the law. Forced labour seemed so just and reasonable a punishment that whenever the possibility of using it profitably appeared the authorities set themselves to multiply indictable offenses and bring luckless people into unpaid servitude....drawing its sustenance from their degradation, there is arising again an intricate tangle of exploiting classes, entrepreneurs, wholesalers, retailers, money-lenders,...politicians, private and corporation lawyers, investors and landowners..."
It makes one wonder where the borderline between convicts, Dubai-esque work permits, and temporary "cultural" visas begins and ends in our globalized labor markets. And within all of this Wells sees the seeds for populism of the New and Radical Right:
"There were organized religious and patriotic revivals....schools were discovered to be immoral, unpatriotic and antireligious. It was extraordinary how the money-changers hurried to the deserted temples and clamoured for the return of Christ. Every town and city found someone or other keen to revive and protect its privileges....Even men who were engaged in organizing debt-serf cultivation and debt-serf industrialism...appeared as generous supporters of and subscribers to the sacred cause of individual liberty."
It is truly a work that leaves all of us to pause - like Wordsworth - in our "...cheerful confidence in things to come."
September 10, 2009
Despite my acerbic comments made while reading, I found myself enjoying this book much more than I thought I would, especially once I got past the first two parts, which chronicle the collapse of Western civilization. As a novel, this book is a real stinker; if there were negative stars on GoodReads, this tome would deserve them. What it is, is an analysis of modern, capitalist, consumption-driven culture and the inherent weaknesses that are most likely to bring it down, and an interesting speculation on what the author believes should replace it. Namely, a socialist anarchy where there is “no individual property in anything but personal belongings and money.” (Part 3, chap. 5, “The First Conference at Basra: 1965”) (I downloaded my copy from Project Gutenberg and don’t have pagination.) You may not like what Wells believes the answers to our problems are but they’re interesting and reveal an astonishing imagination capable of “thinking outside the box” (forgive the use of the already trite cliché). This compares to Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men, though Stapledon’s vision is far, far broader and doesn’t continue the conceit that Man is the culmination of evolution.
My first vision of The Shape of Things to Come came when I watched a Christmas Eve showing of the 1936 film on my local PBS station as a kid. I recently reviewed the film (which fueled this interest in reading its source). The film isn’t very good, really, except for the middle part, taking place during the years of recovery. Though I like Raymond Massey in “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and “Arsenic and Old Lace,” his characters (John/Oswald Cabal) are the weakest parts of the movie. I cringe just thinking of Oswald’s final oration as his children fly off into space. As a novel, if the book were modeled on the movie’s structure, it might merit more respect – I see it following another apocalyptic novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz (a favorite): The first part would be set during the collapse of the West; the second part would occur during the reconstruction; and the final section would be set in the civilization that eventually emerges.
But I ramble…
Regarding the novel, Wells sets up the conceit that a scientist of our own era has received messages from the future purportedly showing what happens between the end of the Great War (1918) and 2106. It’s unexplained and unexplainable and ironic in the face of the fact that Wells’ future society rests on supremely rational, scientific and secular principles. Fortunately, the author pretty much ignores the premise throughout the remainder of the book. In a paragraph that rings eerily and frighteningly apropos considering current events (and as an example of his insight), Wells writes “the immediate causes of the world collapse in the twentieth century were first monetary inadaptability, secondly the disorganization of society through increased productivity, and thirdly the great pestilence. War was not a direct cause. The everyday life of man is economic, not belligerent, and it was strangled by the creditor.” (Part 2, chap. 12, “America in Liquidation” – emphasis mine) The “Age of Frustration” lasts from c. 1933 to 1965, when the First Basra Conference establishes the embryonic Modern World State – a civilization based upon the Marxist ideal of common property and the subordination of the individual to the commonweal. It’s not Communism as envisioned by Marx or Lenin but the committed capitalist or Chicago School economist would find little to distinguish in its outcomes.
Dismayingly, Wells sees (and seems to welcome) a Soviet-style interlude where the old is utterly swept away and the insufficiently zealous are sacrificed. There’s an episode reminiscent of Stalin’s show trials where one of the World Council’s members, Arden Essenden, is brought down by his political enemies: “The question of his specific guilt is an altogether minor matter. The question before us is not, `What has Essenden done?’ but, `What are we going to do about Essenden?’ There is need for repression coming; civil war and bloodshed are plainly upon us. This is no time for Great Lovers. Essenden has become ambiguous. He cannot lead us, and - how can we do without him? Things have come to this, Essenden, you are inconvenient. Apart from this quarrel of the women, you are in the way.” (Part 4, chap. 2, “Melodramatic Interlude”) Wells also has little good to say about democracy or politics. De Windt, the fictional philosopher who provides the framework that becomes Modern State ideology, says “it is no good asking people what they want. That is the error of democracy. You have first to think out what they ought to want if society is to be saved. Then you have to tell them what they want and see that they get it”; and “About most affairs there can be no two respectable and antagonistic opinions. It is nonsense to pretend there can be. There is one sole right way and there are endless wrong ways of doing things.” (Part 3, chap. 1, “The Plan of the Modern State Is Worked Out”)
Eventually, education, prosperity and human nature produce a “revolt” that bloodlessly replaces the “Soviet” interlude (the Air Dictatorship) and allows Wells to describe the subsequent Utopia in Part Five – The Modern State in Control of Life (Wells likes the word “control,” and seems quite happy with a top-down organization of the world). This is the most absurd part of the book as Wells rhapsodizes about how (unremittingly) good life is at the dawn of the 22nd century. He’d already simplified and reduced the collapse and recovery in the interests of his narrative, and the final chapters are a compendium of man’s achievements and the great advances yet to come: unleashing the productive capacities of the soil, exploiting the mineral wealth of the earth, taming and genetically manipulating the animal and plant kingdoms (he anticipates modern debate about messing with the human genome by postulating a general consensus that humans don’t know enough to mess with it yet but that they will in the future), altering the earth’s geology (another future project), refining education and social psychology to eliminate “regressive” or “reactionary” thought, increasing the efficiency of the distribution of wealth, and (perhaps the most critical) advancing human physical and mental health (from “Sublimation of Interest,” Part 5, chap. 8: “And the greatest discovery man has made has been the discovery of himself. Leonardo da Vinci with his immense breadth of vision, his creative fervour, his curiosity, his power of intensive work, was the precursor of the ordinary man, as the world is now producing him”).
A few random, final thoughts: As I write this review the hysterical, right-wing reaction to Barack Obama’s plan to speak to America’s schools on their first day back is sputtering out, and I’m listening to his address before Congress on health-care reform. I bring both these up because Wells addresses them, in a way, when discussing the world’s collapse and recovery. Regarding the latter: The greatest weakness for the Left in our efforts to join the rest of the civilized world in health-care standards is that we have no movement and no plan. The Democratic Party has a few phrases (“public option”) but no specifics so it’s easy for its opponents to raise opposition. It doesn’t help that the party’s hacks are as much employees of big pharma and the for-profit insurance industry as the Republicans. But before I get too political, let me relate this to The Shape of Things to Come: Wells argues that many saw what needed to be done (the end) in the decades before the Great War – i.e., a world state – but their efforts came to naught because they had no strategy or blueprint to follow. They succumbed to intellectual chaos and the simplistic calumniations of their opponents until a figure emerged with a coherent ideology and a plan around which people could gather.
In education, Wells has the brilliant insight that all education is indoctrination and that you cannot change a society until you change the minds of its members. In addition to the nodes of communication and transport, the Modern State takes over the schools and raises a generation of young to accept its ideology. A lesson the old Communists and modern-day right wingnuts understand well but which our sadly anemic Left and floundering liberals balk at acknowledging. Wells’ description of the early educational efforts of the Modern State sound a lot like the madrasas networks of Muslim fundamentalists or the right wing’s 30-year campaign to “educate” America in government’s fundamental “evilness” – brilliantly effective at turning out true believers. If our children must be indoctrinated, Wells’ prescription, at least in its final form, appeals well: “But the New Education, based on a swiftly expanding science of relationship, was no longer the preservation of a tradition, but instead the explanation of a creative effort in the light of a constantly most penetrating criticism of contemporary things.” (Part 4, chap. 5, “The Text Resumes: The Tyranny of the Second Council”)
My very last thought – religion. Wells doesn’t like it. The Modern State is thoroughly secular and all organized religion has disappeared, initially repressed by the Air Dictatorship but later dying a “natural” death as man sheds his delusions. This is another area where, I think, Wells underestimates the resiliency of the spiritual impulse, and wildly overestimates the beneficent influence of rationalism and the myth of scientific progress. And, in another one of those ironic recognitions, Wells ends the novel with the observation that before things can get better the old system must be shown to be utterly bankrupt and “an aggressive order of religiously devoted men and women (must) try out and establish and impose a new pattern of living upon our race.” (Part 5, chap. 9, “A New Phase in the History of Life” – emphasis mine)
Can’t really recommend this except to Wells fans and Utopian/dystopian lit geeks but it’s full of insights into the weaknesses of our modern civilization – considering the state of the world today, Wells may have just missed predicting when and how the world ends by 50 years – and interesting (if, at times, disturbing) ideas about how to address them.
My first vision of The Shape of Things to Come came when I watched a Christmas Eve showing of the 1936 film on my local PBS station as a kid. I recently reviewed the film (which fueled this interest in reading its source). The film isn’t very good, really, except for the middle part, taking place during the years of recovery. Though I like Raymond Massey in “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and “Arsenic and Old Lace,” his characters (John/Oswald Cabal) are the weakest parts of the movie. I cringe just thinking of Oswald’s final oration as his children fly off into space. As a novel, if the book were modeled on the movie’s structure, it might merit more respect – I see it following another apocalyptic novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz (a favorite): The first part would be set during the collapse of the West; the second part would occur during the reconstruction; and the final section would be set in the civilization that eventually emerges.
But I ramble…
Regarding the novel, Wells sets up the conceit that a scientist of our own era has received messages from the future purportedly showing what happens between the end of the Great War (1918) and 2106. It’s unexplained and unexplainable and ironic in the face of the fact that Wells’ future society rests on supremely rational, scientific and secular principles. Fortunately, the author pretty much ignores the premise throughout the remainder of the book. In a paragraph that rings eerily and frighteningly apropos considering current events (and as an example of his insight), Wells writes “the immediate causes of the world collapse in the twentieth century were first monetary inadaptability, secondly the disorganization of society through increased productivity, and thirdly the great pestilence. War was not a direct cause. The everyday life of man is economic, not belligerent, and it was strangled by the creditor.” (Part 2, chap. 12, “America in Liquidation” – emphasis mine) The “Age of Frustration” lasts from c. 1933 to 1965, when the First Basra Conference establishes the embryonic Modern World State – a civilization based upon the Marxist ideal of common property and the subordination of the individual to the commonweal. It’s not Communism as envisioned by Marx or Lenin but the committed capitalist or Chicago School economist would find little to distinguish in its outcomes.
Dismayingly, Wells sees (and seems to welcome) a Soviet-style interlude where the old is utterly swept away and the insufficiently zealous are sacrificed. There’s an episode reminiscent of Stalin’s show trials where one of the World Council’s members, Arden Essenden, is brought down by his political enemies: “The question of his specific guilt is an altogether minor matter. The question before us is not, `What has Essenden done?’ but, `What are we going to do about Essenden?’ There is need for repression coming; civil war and bloodshed are plainly upon us. This is no time for Great Lovers. Essenden has become ambiguous. He cannot lead us, and - how can we do without him? Things have come to this, Essenden, you are inconvenient. Apart from this quarrel of the women, you are in the way.” (Part 4, chap. 2, “Melodramatic Interlude”) Wells also has little good to say about democracy or politics. De Windt, the fictional philosopher who provides the framework that becomes Modern State ideology, says “it is no good asking people what they want. That is the error of democracy. You have first to think out what they ought to want if society is to be saved. Then you have to tell them what they want and see that they get it”; and “About most affairs there can be no two respectable and antagonistic opinions. It is nonsense to pretend there can be. There is one sole right way and there are endless wrong ways of doing things.” (Part 3, chap. 1, “The Plan of the Modern State Is Worked Out”)
Eventually, education, prosperity and human nature produce a “revolt” that bloodlessly replaces the “Soviet” interlude (the Air Dictatorship) and allows Wells to describe the subsequent Utopia in Part Five – The Modern State in Control of Life (Wells likes the word “control,” and seems quite happy with a top-down organization of the world). This is the most absurd part of the book as Wells rhapsodizes about how (unremittingly) good life is at the dawn of the 22nd century. He’d already simplified and reduced the collapse and recovery in the interests of his narrative, and the final chapters are a compendium of man’s achievements and the great advances yet to come: unleashing the productive capacities of the soil, exploiting the mineral wealth of the earth, taming and genetically manipulating the animal and plant kingdoms (he anticipates modern debate about messing with the human genome by postulating a general consensus that humans don’t know enough to mess with it yet but that they will in the future), altering the earth’s geology (another future project), refining education and social psychology to eliminate “regressive” or “reactionary” thought, increasing the efficiency of the distribution of wealth, and (perhaps the most critical) advancing human physical and mental health (from “Sublimation of Interest,” Part 5, chap. 8: “And the greatest discovery man has made has been the discovery of himself. Leonardo da Vinci with his immense breadth of vision, his creative fervour, his curiosity, his power of intensive work, was the precursor of the ordinary man, as the world is now producing him”).
A few random, final thoughts: As I write this review the hysterical, right-wing reaction to Barack Obama’s plan to speak to America’s schools on their first day back is sputtering out, and I’m listening to his address before Congress on health-care reform. I bring both these up because Wells addresses them, in a way, when discussing the world’s collapse and recovery. Regarding the latter: The greatest weakness for the Left in our efforts to join the rest of the civilized world in health-care standards is that we have no movement and no plan. The Democratic Party has a few phrases (“public option”) but no specifics so it’s easy for its opponents to raise opposition. It doesn’t help that the party’s hacks are as much employees of big pharma and the for-profit insurance industry as the Republicans. But before I get too political, let me relate this to The Shape of Things to Come: Wells argues that many saw what needed to be done (the end) in the decades before the Great War – i.e., a world state – but their efforts came to naught because they had no strategy or blueprint to follow. They succumbed to intellectual chaos and the simplistic calumniations of their opponents until a figure emerged with a coherent ideology and a plan around which people could gather.
In education, Wells has the brilliant insight that all education is indoctrination and that you cannot change a society until you change the minds of its members. In addition to the nodes of communication and transport, the Modern State takes over the schools and raises a generation of young to accept its ideology. A lesson the old Communists and modern-day right wingnuts understand well but which our sadly anemic Left and floundering liberals balk at acknowledging. Wells’ description of the early educational efforts of the Modern State sound a lot like the madrasas networks of Muslim fundamentalists or the right wing’s 30-year campaign to “educate” America in government’s fundamental “evilness” – brilliantly effective at turning out true believers. If our children must be indoctrinated, Wells’ prescription, at least in its final form, appeals well: “But the New Education, based on a swiftly expanding science of relationship, was no longer the preservation of a tradition, but instead the explanation of a creative effort in the light of a constantly most penetrating criticism of contemporary things.” (Part 4, chap. 5, “The Text Resumes: The Tyranny of the Second Council”)
My very last thought – religion. Wells doesn’t like it. The Modern State is thoroughly secular and all organized religion has disappeared, initially repressed by the Air Dictatorship but later dying a “natural” death as man sheds his delusions. This is another area where, I think, Wells underestimates the resiliency of the spiritual impulse, and wildly overestimates the beneficent influence of rationalism and the myth of scientific progress. And, in another one of those ironic recognitions, Wells ends the novel with the observation that before things can get better the old system must be shown to be utterly bankrupt and “an aggressive order of religiously devoted men and women (must) try out and establish and impose a new pattern of living upon our race.” (Part 5, chap. 9, “A New Phase in the History of Life” – emphasis mine)
Can’t really recommend this except to Wells fans and Utopian/dystopian lit geeks but it’s full of insights into the weaknesses of our modern civilization – considering the state of the world today, Wells may have just missed predicting when and how the world ends by 50 years – and interesting (if, at times, disturbing) ideas about how to address them.
January 18, 2021
H. G. Wells published this novel in 1933, posing the author as a historian looking back from the year 2106. Readers familiar with Wells from his scientific romances, such as The Time Machine or The War of the Worlds, will see a very different sort of writer in this work. There are no characters at all, other than those of the frame story, in which H. G. Wells himself introduces some manuscripts and papers he has been given from the estate of Dr. Phillip Raven. Apparently, Raven dreamed he was the future historian, and recorded his dreams. Within 17 pages, Raven is out of the way, and that future historian is speaking to the reader in an academic style. It tells the story of the transformation of the world into “The Modern State” over the then-next 173 years. I have to say that as a fiction novel, this writing is really dry. I didn’t so much enjoy it, as study it. If I were not engaged in a systematic read of historical utopian/dystopian works, no way I would have gotten through.
BOOK 1 - Approximately the first quarter of the book is interpretation of actual historical events leading up to the early 1930s, through the lens of H. G. Wells’ support for unified world government. He principally looks at pre-war denial and isolationism, the Great War itself, and the post-war Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations, and the London Economic Conference. It is important, I think, to remember that 1933 was a just a few years into the global Great Depression, at a time when it was becoming obvious there would not be quick economic rebound. Wells and other intellectuals were examining structural flaws in the existent economic system.
And I have to mention that his comment on women’s suffrage is shockingly dismissive. "Later on, in just the same way, a minority of dissatisfied and aggressive women struggling for a role in affairs inflicted the vote upon the indifferent majority of women. But their achievement ended with that. Outside that sexual vindication, women at that time had little to contribute to the solution of the world's problems, and as a matter of fact they contributed nothing."
BOOK 2 – From the perspective of the same future historian, this middle-ish third of the book looks back on the events of the 1930s and 40s – the speculative near future of the time the book was written. It is a very thorough and probably realistic projection from the geopolitical, cultural, and economic trends that existed up to 1933. Ironically, while cataloging the failure of humanity to rise above ethnic hatred, Wells himself elaborates with extensive prejudice about the German mind, the French mind, the American mind, the Negro mind, etc. – while assuming the English mind to hold the greatest equanimity. Today, this section reads like an alternate history novel of World War 2. While he did not get the specifics exactly right; the flashpoints are Polish aggression in defense of the Danzig Corridor and an Italian invasion of the Dalmatian coast; the conflicts are based substantially on the same issues. Fortunately for England, it manages to stay out of direct conflict in this second worldwide war. In the end, rather than any concise victory, fatigue and disillusionment and disease set in, leading to national collapses and transient socialist revolutions - all precursors to his idealized Modern State. The world hits bottom before it can rise up in new form.
BOOK 3 – The next almost one quarter of the book describes the emergence of the Modern State from a world that has returned predominantly to subsistence agriculture. Rudimentary trade grows out of a Transport Union. The Modern State Movement is born, led by a technocratic elite made up of “modern scientific men.” At its first major conference in Basra, they declare themselves to be owners of all airports and aircraft. I suspect H. G. Wells, writing during the beginnings of air transportation, did not understand how dependent it would be on a complex economic and manufacturing infrastructure. In any case, there is no governmental control at that time to oppose their takeover. After a few years of recovery, during a second major conference in Basra that is contending with the reappearance of dormant sovereign nations, The World State declares itself to be the global government, and puts down rebellions with its expanded air superiority.
BOOKS 4 and 5 – The remainder of the book is divided into two thin sections. After the World State government completes its task of redefining human culture, it closes itself down, to be replaced by the Modern State society without government. In order to do this, it is necessary to eliminate all human national, ethnic, and religious identity. If necessary, isolated vestigial groups (such as religious bodies) can be reformed into ineffective and innocuous forms. The World Council has a 30-year Plan to accomplish that through population turn-over and education of the next generation. Wells seems to assume the blank-slate model of human nature, ready to be shaped however is needed, which is now understood to be incorrect. As for abolishing government, it does seem clear that if there is only one government and one culture, that those aspects of government and culture which face outwards to others will have become useless. But I remain skeptical of any realistic chance of it happening.
I have recently read H. G. Wells' A Modern Utopia (1905), and was curious to know if there were consistent ideas between the two works. While A Modern Utopia concerns what the ultimate human utopia might be like, this work is primarily about social evolution from the present day, with the ultimate human condition only briefly covered in the end. I think by the time of The Shape of Things to Come, Wells came to think of many of the specific laws and practices of his utopia as of lesser importance than the overall trend towards unification of humanity. The Samurai class of A Modern Utopia reappears, although less explicitly, in the modern scientific men of the Modern State Movement. One concept that did survive fully, however, was his proposal for a currency based on units of energy rather than units of precious metals. This is extended by an explanation of its equivalence to quantified units of transportation.
BOOK 1 - Approximately the first quarter of the book is interpretation of actual historical events leading up to the early 1930s, through the lens of H. G. Wells’ support for unified world government. He principally looks at pre-war denial and isolationism, the Great War itself, and the post-war Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations, and the London Economic Conference. It is important, I think, to remember that 1933 was a just a few years into the global Great Depression, at a time when it was becoming obvious there would not be quick economic rebound. Wells and other intellectuals were examining structural flaws in the existent economic system.
And I have to mention that his comment on women’s suffrage is shockingly dismissive. "Later on, in just the same way, a minority of dissatisfied and aggressive women struggling for a role in affairs inflicted the vote upon the indifferent majority of women. But their achievement ended with that. Outside that sexual vindication, women at that time had little to contribute to the solution of the world's problems, and as a matter of fact they contributed nothing."
BOOK 2 – From the perspective of the same future historian, this middle-ish third of the book looks back on the events of the 1930s and 40s – the speculative near future of the time the book was written. It is a very thorough and probably realistic projection from the geopolitical, cultural, and economic trends that existed up to 1933. Ironically, while cataloging the failure of humanity to rise above ethnic hatred, Wells himself elaborates with extensive prejudice about the German mind, the French mind, the American mind, the Negro mind, etc. – while assuming the English mind to hold the greatest equanimity. Today, this section reads like an alternate history novel of World War 2. While he did not get the specifics exactly right; the flashpoints are Polish aggression in defense of the Danzig Corridor and an Italian invasion of the Dalmatian coast; the conflicts are based substantially on the same issues. Fortunately for England, it manages to stay out of direct conflict in this second worldwide war. In the end, rather than any concise victory, fatigue and disillusionment and disease set in, leading to national collapses and transient socialist revolutions - all precursors to his idealized Modern State. The world hits bottom before it can rise up in new form.
BOOK 3 – The next almost one quarter of the book describes the emergence of the Modern State from a world that has returned predominantly to subsistence agriculture. Rudimentary trade grows out of a Transport Union. The Modern State Movement is born, led by a technocratic elite made up of “modern scientific men.” At its first major conference in Basra, they declare themselves to be owners of all airports and aircraft. I suspect H. G. Wells, writing during the beginnings of air transportation, did not understand how dependent it would be on a complex economic and manufacturing infrastructure. In any case, there is no governmental control at that time to oppose their takeover. After a few years of recovery, during a second major conference in Basra that is contending with the reappearance of dormant sovereign nations, The World State declares itself to be the global government, and puts down rebellions with its expanded air superiority.
BOOKS 4 and 5 – The remainder of the book is divided into two thin sections. After the World State government completes its task of redefining human culture, it closes itself down, to be replaced by the Modern State society without government. In order to do this, it is necessary to eliminate all human national, ethnic, and religious identity. If necessary, isolated vestigial groups (such as religious bodies) can be reformed into ineffective and innocuous forms. The World Council has a 30-year Plan to accomplish that through population turn-over and education of the next generation. Wells seems to assume the blank-slate model of human nature, ready to be shaped however is needed, which is now understood to be incorrect. As for abolishing government, it does seem clear that if there is only one government and one culture, that those aspects of government and culture which face outwards to others will have become useless. But I remain skeptical of any realistic chance of it happening.
I have recently read H. G. Wells' A Modern Utopia (1905), and was curious to know if there were consistent ideas between the two works. While A Modern Utopia concerns what the ultimate human utopia might be like, this work is primarily about social evolution from the present day, with the ultimate human condition only briefly covered in the end. I think by the time of The Shape of Things to Come, Wells came to think of many of the specific laws and practices of his utopia as of lesser importance than the overall trend towards unification of humanity. The Samurai class of A Modern Utopia reappears, although less explicitly, in the modern scientific men of the Modern State Movement. One concept that did survive fully, however, was his proposal for a currency based on units of energy rather than units of precious metals. This is extended by an explanation of its equivalence to quantified units of transportation.
January 31, 2020
To accompany the reading (and now a rereading of) this book, I have re-watched the film version “Shape of Things” (1936) and also re-read Wells’ original intended screen play for the film, which can be found in the archives of the public domain - and is the best version of this idea. Noteworthy, is that this was written immediately after Wells published his "A short History of the World", and being a writer of fiction, I imagine, he could not help but speculate on how things would develop forward 200 hundred years into the future based on the events of the past.
This book (I refrain from considering it a novel as it seemed to have be based upon a collection of essays) begins with that of a narrator reciting the edited sum of notes he had acquired from a Mr. Raven, who claimed to have dreamt of reading a sort of futuristic history book (perhaps it was a textbook as the author often refers to: “the student of history must...”). This history begins in the year 1914 and continues to the current date of 1933, then goes on to describe a future history that ends in 2106.
Wells does a thorough study of recent history, followed by a projection of future world affairs that lead up to an inevitable second world-world war, followed by a plague. A noteworthy item is of a comical minor indecent between two men that ultimately precipitates into that second world-war in 1940, which much like something Kurt Vonnegut might have come up with.
Perhaps because to the book was written during the beginning of the great depression, Wells is not very optimistic as to how his contemporaries and their offspring would generally handle world affairs. There are important roles played by contemporary prominent people such as Henry Ford, President Henry Roosevelt and even Aldolf Hitler, who Wells, at one point, describes as “hysterical” and by the time of this writing, was only beginning to make his very real impression on the real shape of things to come.
There isn’t really an overall plot as such, however, there is the odd vignette, such as in Book IV 2. Melodramatic interlude: which is a romantic entanglement between characters Elizabeth Horthy, a pilot and Arden Essenden, a founder of the new order. This interlude could have been developed into an entire novel on its own. Nor is there an identifiable protagonist throughout – there is no Cabal character, such as is featured in the film version of the book that, along with descendants, span the ages. This is primarily a vehicle for Wells to lecture of his vast ideals such as a single-world government and his own favourite brand of socialism that he has described in previous works. It is among other things, an overall anti-war protest. What is made very clear, is Wells’ incredulity with how the world’s governments perpetually continue to invest and subscribe to the war machine, while being completely aware of its ultimate failure of ever solving anything, resulting, always, resulting in unfavourable consequences.
The last third of the book becomes simply outrageous, and at the same time, optimistic as Wells describes, with great inventiveness and imagination, his envisioned utopia. The world of the twenty first century has becomes a much more cohesive place, as man has by this time become: Sane. Yet, cracks appear as the new generation questions the wisdom of their ancestors quest of humanity continuously thrive forward. This is most clearly apparent in the largely abridged final segment of Wells’ original screenplay for the film; the question being: Is man fit to venture towards the stars?
There are, in this book, many great observations of the current state of affairs, that lead to logical interesting projections, yet there are also segments that appear to be no more than the rantings of an out of touch disillusioned old curmudgeon who is in the process of writing the epic masterpiece of his late years. I found it astounding that Wells' means to "the conquest space" is modelled after Jules Verne’s gun-type ballistic "space gun", rather than some crude form of rocketry, which were already being developed during the writing of this work, and already considered by slew of established young emerging sf authors such as E.E. Doc Smith, Murray Leinster, Edmond Hamilton, Jack Williamson, and the like - who all had been inspired by Well's work.
Overall, this was a long, tedious and strange, yet interesting, journey through the centre of H.G. Wells’ mind during his later years. Certainly a different "Time Machine" sort of story.
This book (I refrain from considering it a novel as it seemed to have be based upon a collection of essays) begins with that of a narrator reciting the edited sum of notes he had acquired from a Mr. Raven, who claimed to have dreamt of reading a sort of futuristic history book (perhaps it was a textbook as the author often refers to: “the student of history must...”). This history begins in the year 1914 and continues to the current date of 1933, then goes on to describe a future history that ends in 2106.
Wells does a thorough study of recent history, followed by a projection of future world affairs that lead up to an inevitable second world-world war, followed by a plague. A noteworthy item is of a comical minor indecent between two men that ultimately precipitates into that second world-war in 1940, which much like something Kurt Vonnegut might have come up with.
Perhaps because to the book was written during the beginning of the great depression, Wells is not very optimistic as to how his contemporaries and their offspring would generally handle world affairs. There are important roles played by contemporary prominent people such as Henry Ford, President Henry Roosevelt and even Aldolf Hitler, who Wells, at one point, describes as “hysterical” and by the time of this writing, was only beginning to make his very real impression on the real shape of things to come.
There isn’t really an overall plot as such, however, there is the odd vignette, such as in Book IV 2. Melodramatic interlude: which is a romantic entanglement between characters Elizabeth Horthy, a pilot and Arden Essenden, a founder of the new order. This interlude could have been developed into an entire novel on its own. Nor is there an identifiable protagonist throughout – there is no Cabal character, such as is featured in the film version of the book that, along with descendants, span the ages. This is primarily a vehicle for Wells to lecture of his vast ideals such as a single-world government and his own favourite brand of socialism that he has described in previous works. It is among other things, an overall anti-war protest. What is made very clear, is Wells’ incredulity with how the world’s governments perpetually continue to invest and subscribe to the war machine, while being completely aware of its ultimate failure of ever solving anything, resulting, always, resulting in unfavourable consequences.
The last third of the book becomes simply outrageous, and at the same time, optimistic as Wells describes, with great inventiveness and imagination, his envisioned utopia. The world of the twenty first century has becomes a much more cohesive place, as man has by this time become: Sane. Yet, cracks appear as the new generation questions the wisdom of their ancestors quest of humanity continuously thrive forward. This is most clearly apparent in the largely abridged final segment of Wells’ original screenplay for the film; the question being: Is man fit to venture towards the stars?
There are, in this book, many great observations of the current state of affairs, that lead to logical interesting projections, yet there are also segments that appear to be no more than the rantings of an out of touch disillusioned old curmudgeon who is in the process of writing the epic masterpiece of his late years. I found it astounding that Wells' means to "the conquest space" is modelled after Jules Verne’s gun-type ballistic "space gun", rather than some crude form of rocketry, which were already being developed during the writing of this work, and already considered by slew of established young emerging sf authors such as E.E. Doc Smith, Murray Leinster, Edmond Hamilton, Jack Williamson, and the like - who all had been inspired by Well's work.
Overall, this was a long, tedious and strange, yet interesting, journey through the centre of H.G. Wells’ mind during his later years. Certainly a different "Time Machine" sort of story.
June 2, 2012
Tedious, unpleasant and unforgivably implausible…
So, having opened by giving H.G. Well’s famous science fiction novel such a short sharp kicking I suppose I’d better justify myself. Firstly let me start off by defending Wells himself, who was a disciplined, innovative writer whose prodigious body of work contains more light bulb moments than a Phillips factory. Having said that ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ simply isn’t the glorious allegory fest that is ‘The Time Machine’ or ‘The War of the Worlds’ and boy does it show.
The story is told through the words of a fictional League of Nations diplomat Doctor Philip Raven, with Wells penning an introduction and occasionally intervening in the text as an editor. The novel, written in 1933, is divided into five ‘books’ all of which come to Raven in a series of dreams. These dreams seem to him to be somehow the unconscious incarnation of a future text book, which covers world history up to 2106.
The first book, dealing with the world from the outbreak of the First World War up to 1933 is seemingly so interminable that I felt I was reading it almost in real time. This period is of course already actual history for Wells and he seems to spend much of his time either settling old scores or lecturing from the Marxist perspective of world history. In fact throughout the book he returns countless times to the real world to bore the reader with repeated descriptions of pre 1933 life according to Herbert George Well’s. Seriously, you could stun a gazelle, in the prime of its life, into stupefied immobility, simply by reading out long passages of this stuff.
This is followed by four more books which, to cut a very, very long story short cover the outbreak of a prolonged and terrible world war; the decent into post war chaos; the saving of the world by those loveable, stern, genocidal totalitarians ‘The Air Dictatorship’ and the final outbreak of a eugenically engineered, grimly hypocritical and wholly improbable utopia.
Wells wrote this novel at the height of his literary fame and he must have had considerable push back power when dealing with his publishers. ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ certainly reads like a book where the writer has completely had their way and if ever there was a book in dire need of a good hard editing this is it. Reading it is like being stuck in a lift with some tedious sixth former who’s all too eager to show the world how worthy they are with their politically appropriate lapel badges; and who won’t stop droning on with their tedious, misunderstood and fiftieth hand theories about how the world would be a better place if only we let people like them run things.
The voice of Raven is paper thin throughout the book and it doesn’t take a degree in psychology to identify it as that of Wells himself. The book is filled with bleak invective about people’s and organisations for whom Well’s seems to have had little but contempt.
But don’t take my word for it;
- on woman (p115) “Outside that sexual vindication, woman at that time had little to contribute to the solution of the world’s problems, and as a matter of fact they contributed nothing.”
- on politics’ (p126) “Fascism indeed was not an altogether bad thing; it was a bad good thing; and Mussolini has left his mark on history.” … and … (p126) “It is still profoundly interesting to note the modernity of many aspects of the early Bolshevik regime.”
- on Ireland and the Irish (p189) - “…that erstwhile island of evergreen malice” … and (p224) … “At the other extreme were the shiftless Irish.”
- on religion (p328) – “By now it had struck down the very head of Catholic Christianity …” [the world state that is, and by gassing the pope] … and on the same page “Ten days later Air Guards descended on Mecca and closed the holy places. A number of religious observances were suppressed in India and the slaughterhouses in which Kosher food was prepared … were closed throughout the world. An Act of Uniformity came into operation everywhere. There was now to be one faith only in the world, the moral expression of the one world community.”
- and finally on education and our beloved books themselves (p347)
“… the Educational Control, it is argued, was justified in hindering and suppressing books, meetings, teachings, agitations.”
So apparently utopia is born of a bracingly intolerant one world government with a dislike for woman, the Irish and anyone who believes in some form of deity and who likes to choose their own reading material. Lovely.
People often refer to ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ in reverential tones but I’m convinced that most of them haven’t actually read it, they’ve just read/heard that it’s amazingly prophetic in its predictions for the future. Wells is incredibly prolific with these predictions and sometimes he does genuinely astonish you with their accuracy, but the truth is he is wrong more often than he is right.
And as a prediction of how things should be rather than how they might be ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ is by turns both risible and offensive.
So, having opened by giving H.G. Well’s famous science fiction novel such a short sharp kicking I suppose I’d better justify myself. Firstly let me start off by defending Wells himself, who was a disciplined, innovative writer whose prodigious body of work contains more light bulb moments than a Phillips factory. Having said that ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ simply isn’t the glorious allegory fest that is ‘The Time Machine’ or ‘The War of the Worlds’ and boy does it show.
The story is told through the words of a fictional League of Nations diplomat Doctor Philip Raven, with Wells penning an introduction and occasionally intervening in the text as an editor. The novel, written in 1933, is divided into five ‘books’ all of which come to Raven in a series of dreams. These dreams seem to him to be somehow the unconscious incarnation of a future text book, which covers world history up to 2106.
The first book, dealing with the world from the outbreak of the First World War up to 1933 is seemingly so interminable that I felt I was reading it almost in real time. This period is of course already actual history for Wells and he seems to spend much of his time either settling old scores or lecturing from the Marxist perspective of world history. In fact throughout the book he returns countless times to the real world to bore the reader with repeated descriptions of pre 1933 life according to Herbert George Well’s. Seriously, you could stun a gazelle, in the prime of its life, into stupefied immobility, simply by reading out long passages of this stuff.
This is followed by four more books which, to cut a very, very long story short cover the outbreak of a prolonged and terrible world war; the decent into post war chaos; the saving of the world by those loveable, stern, genocidal totalitarians ‘The Air Dictatorship’ and the final outbreak of a eugenically engineered, grimly hypocritical and wholly improbable utopia.
Wells wrote this novel at the height of his literary fame and he must have had considerable push back power when dealing with his publishers. ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ certainly reads like a book where the writer has completely had their way and if ever there was a book in dire need of a good hard editing this is it. Reading it is like being stuck in a lift with some tedious sixth former who’s all too eager to show the world how worthy they are with their politically appropriate lapel badges; and who won’t stop droning on with their tedious, misunderstood and fiftieth hand theories about how the world would be a better place if only we let people like them run things.
The voice of Raven is paper thin throughout the book and it doesn’t take a degree in psychology to identify it as that of Wells himself. The book is filled with bleak invective about people’s and organisations for whom Well’s seems to have had little but contempt.
But don’t take my word for it;
- on woman (p115) “Outside that sexual vindication, woman at that time had little to contribute to the solution of the world’s problems, and as a matter of fact they contributed nothing.”
- on politics’ (p126) “Fascism indeed was not an altogether bad thing; it was a bad good thing; and Mussolini has left his mark on history.” … and … (p126) “It is still profoundly interesting to note the modernity of many aspects of the early Bolshevik regime.”
- on Ireland and the Irish (p189) - “…that erstwhile island of evergreen malice” … and (p224) … “At the other extreme were the shiftless Irish.”
- on religion (p328) – “By now it had struck down the very head of Catholic Christianity …” [the world state that is, and by gassing the pope] … and on the same page “Ten days later Air Guards descended on Mecca and closed the holy places. A number of religious observances were suppressed in India and the slaughterhouses in which Kosher food was prepared … were closed throughout the world. An Act of Uniformity came into operation everywhere. There was now to be one faith only in the world, the moral expression of the one world community.”
- and finally on education and our beloved books themselves (p347)
“… the Educational Control, it is argued, was justified in hindering and suppressing books, meetings, teachings, agitations.”
So apparently utopia is born of a bracingly intolerant one world government with a dislike for woman, the Irish and anyone who believes in some form of deity and who likes to choose their own reading material. Lovely.
People often refer to ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ in reverential tones but I’m convinced that most of them haven’t actually read it, they’ve just read/heard that it’s amazingly prophetic in its predictions for the future. Wells is incredibly prolific with these predictions and sometimes he does genuinely astonish you with their accuracy, but the truth is he is wrong more often than he is right.
And as a prediction of how things should be rather than how they might be ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ is by turns both risible and offensive.
July 17, 2022
A dystopian/utopian novel, written as a history book from the year 2106 and detailing the rise of a single world government. This is really good, despite what i will say about it's shortcomings, be assured that those are minor. As mentioned it is a history book and as such it can be quite dry with all of socio-economic talk etc. but its also really fascinating.
Once i saw where it was going i thought it was going to turn out very silly and unrealistic. However when it got to the details it was remarkably detailed and authentic. Wells must have studied a lot of history books to be able to mimic them in this manner. The name dropping, references, argument and counter-arguments, every facet of this makes it seem real.
BUT i do have a few gripes, one, its really long, a bit longer than it needed to be in my opinion although i do think the slowness of things added to the feeling of authenticity.
Secondly i never understood how the organization's mentioned actually worked, in the details. How were people elected or promoted etc. it seemed a little hazy in that regard.
Lastly but very much the major problem of this work is its sexism. I'm used to reading old books and good old-fashioned blatant (women should stay in the kitchen) sexism i can easily deal with, this was a little different.
Women are almost entirely absent from this book, something which even the author acknowledges briefly but then excuses in the worst way.
Wells is past the old fashioned sexism, he recognizes women as scientists, business people, artists and aviators so why are they so infrequent in this text you might ask?
Well you see this is a history book, dealing with historically important people and according to Wells, women will NEVER stand out enough to be historically important. He also gives the secondary opinion that women don't WANT to be important.
That they are naturally meek, submissive and unegotistical, instead of the power-hungry, backstabbing, narcissists we all know them to be, just like men.
Its somewhat infuriating just because this book is so close to being perfect, if only Well's could have dragged himself a little further up the evolutionary ladder.
Once i saw where it was going i thought it was going to turn out very silly and unrealistic. However when it got to the details it was remarkably detailed and authentic. Wells must have studied a lot of history books to be able to mimic them in this manner. The name dropping, references, argument and counter-arguments, every facet of this makes it seem real.
BUT i do have a few gripes, one, its really long, a bit longer than it needed to be in my opinion although i do think the slowness of things added to the feeling of authenticity.
Secondly i never understood how the organization's mentioned actually worked, in the details. How were people elected or promoted etc. it seemed a little hazy in that regard.
Lastly but very much the major problem of this work is its sexism. I'm used to reading old books and good old-fashioned blatant (women should stay in the kitchen) sexism i can easily deal with, this was a little different.
Women are almost entirely absent from this book, something which even the author acknowledges briefly but then excuses in the worst way.
Wells is past the old fashioned sexism, he recognizes women as scientists, business people, artists and aviators so why are they so infrequent in this text you might ask?
Well you see this is a history book, dealing with historically important people and according to Wells, women will NEVER stand out enough to be historically important. He also gives the secondary opinion that women don't WANT to be important.
That they are naturally meek, submissive and unegotistical, instead of the power-hungry, backstabbing, narcissists we all know them to be, just like men.
Its somewhat infuriating just because this book is so close to being perfect, if only Well's could have dragged himself a little further up the evolutionary ladder.
April 28, 2014
The book is a history of the world from WWI through the end of the 21st century. Mr Wells wrote it in 1933, having lived through WWI, the economic collapse of Europe and the Americas, Stalin’s twist on Marx-Lenin and the rise of fascism. His hoped-for solution to his day's troubles was to re-write humanity by means of a culturally monolithic dictatorship of technically-adept Platonic Guardians, after yet more evil events furthered social disintegration--a supposed pre-requisite to rebuilding. I dislike Mr Well's opposition to diversity, his assumption that change must be wrought through catastrophe and the coercion of an elite, and the notion of a human tabula rasa.
The early part of the book is true history. The author’s tendentiousness grates less partly due to the remove of events with the passage of time. But it is also mitigated by the art of his language; witness his comment on PM Ramsay MacDonald: “For a time, in the opening glow of the assembly, with the clicking photographers recording every studied gesture, with the attentive microphones spreading out and pickling for ever his fine voice and his rich accent, with bustling secretaries in sedulous attendance, with the well-trained gravity of the delegates and particularly the well-matured high seriousness of those adepts in public appearance, the Americans, to sustain him, this last sublimation of democratic statesmanship may really have believed that some kind of favourable incantation was in progress under his direction.”
The most distressing parts of the book aren’t the abhorrent philosophy, but the bigotry and sexism. At one point in his review of women in the (mostly future) 20th century he sums up: “They lost what little political significance they had when queens went out of fashion.” The most attention given to a woman of the future is to Elizabeth Horthy, who plays out a partial analogue to Katherine O'Shea, bringing down an important revolutionary through a sex scandal. He follows with what begins as a sympathetic portrait of Juanita Mackail, but she degrades first to a junior dialectical partner, and then succumbs naturally (in the author’s warped view) to mothering the man she’s with. Sad.
Much more enjoyable is the post-apocalyptic descriptions in Book II. Section 11, starting with “There are six interesting snapshots…” And the Wells of the scientific romances we loved as children comes through in Book V, Section 2, about future terraforming. (Not that you’d agreed with the entire vision, but it’s still fun.)
The early part of the book is true history. The author’s tendentiousness grates less partly due to the remove of events with the passage of time. But it is also mitigated by the art of his language; witness his comment on PM Ramsay MacDonald: “For a time, in the opening glow of the assembly, with the clicking photographers recording every studied gesture, with the attentive microphones spreading out and pickling for ever his fine voice and his rich accent, with bustling secretaries in sedulous attendance, with the well-trained gravity of the delegates and particularly the well-matured high seriousness of those adepts in public appearance, the Americans, to sustain him, this last sublimation of democratic statesmanship may really have believed that some kind of favourable incantation was in progress under his direction.”
The most distressing parts of the book aren’t the abhorrent philosophy, but the bigotry and sexism. At one point in his review of women in the (mostly future) 20th century he sums up: “They lost what little political significance they had when queens went out of fashion.” The most attention given to a woman of the future is to Elizabeth Horthy, who plays out a partial analogue to Katherine O'Shea, bringing down an important revolutionary through a sex scandal. He follows with what begins as a sympathetic portrait of Juanita Mackail, but she degrades first to a junior dialectical partner, and then succumbs naturally (in the author’s warped view) to mothering the man she’s with. Sad.
Much more enjoyable is the post-apocalyptic descriptions in Book II. Section 11, starting with “There are six interesting snapshots…” And the Wells of the scientific romances we loved as children comes through in Book V, Section 2, about future terraforming. (Not that you’d agreed with the entire vision, but it’s still fun.)
February 24, 2021
I love H G Wells, The time machine, the invisible man, the war of the worlds and especially the island of doctor Moreau resonated with me. But here is the thing, most people including myself tend to stop there. I even had no idea that he had written several books after that and in 1933 had published a 400 paged prediction of the world to come. Stumbling upon it in a cheap book pile I was intrigued and decided what the heck. Halas my appreciation for H G Wells has taken a bit of a dive after sampling a chunk of this book that I will not force myself to fully digest.
The shape of things to come is basically H G Wells’s Thomas More Utopia or Voltaire’s Micromégas. It is the supposedly truthful transcription of the dreams of a diplomat form the league of nations, dreams sent to him from the far future of 2106ish. Like Thomas More and Voltaire, Wells uses the vehicle of a visitor to tell us about what is awaiting us and in doing so telling us what might be what he whishes to happen? See I am not sure, at times it sure felt as serious prediction but other times it felt as if HG Wells was writing a huge pile of worldbuilding material for later scifi books. This poses a dilemma for us as modern readers; do we look at it as a serious prediction? Or as worldbuilding material? I am going to do a bit of both because I honestly can’t tell what it really is.
All science fiction is setting out predicting the future and that is the fun of it really, to tell a story of how the world will look like if one tweaks certain aspects of society or one adds something new to the mix. The shape of things to come however does not do the second thing that sci fi does, it does not give us a story. The book is without a protagonist through whose eyes we explore this world, whose knowledge and assumptions color the world for us to be guided by. The style leaves much to be desired; paragraph length sentences, monotone, dry and slow paced. This is why I say it feels as worldbuilding material, there is plenty of stuff here that would make the perfect background for a sci fi story, but that is all it is, the background.
As I said at the start, I did not read the whole book but did read chunks all over to get a grasp of the timeline. What it basically boils down to is that a second world war of ten years in length (1940-1950) started by Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy results in a global implosion of society. Famine, poverty, destruction and devastation leads to mutinies like the 1917 october revolution but also to outbreak of new super pandemics that kill off half of the world population. The world breaks down to segments and pockets isolated from one another, the global society as Wells new it in the late 19th and early 20th disappears. Only a few hideouts of technology, governance and vision remain, most importantly the aviators. For that is where Wells sees the future dynamic, not with the communist or capitalist nor the classic sovereign nation, but in a global technocratic movement, the socalled air dictatorship who by use of their expertise and power force the world to submit to their new world order. A world order that by 2100 leads to a new biological epoch of mankind and transition to a mindhive.
Well that is a lot isn’t it? I mean we can all snobly point out that obviously none of this happened but I do see some things that have come up with Wells before. Readers of the war of the worlds know about the role of germs in that book. The time machine also gave us a world where the human race had underwent an evolutionary change and there society had broken down as well. Well has written about the air dictatorship before in a book called “the war in the air” so in that sense this book combines quite a few of his ideas in one timeline. At the same time I was reminded by a book I read two years back, “alleen de wolken” by which talked about how immense society changed and was rocked by a bombardment of technological inventions and new political thinking between 1918 and 1940 and how in particular people who had been adults in the late 19th century must have been bewildered by how different the world had become and how uncertain and tumultuous the future looked. This book does seem to confirm that premise.
Having said all that, there are a few things in this book that is bound to make people stare at their page for a while. “ at the other extreme were the shiftless Irish. Until the return of production their fysical misery was very great indeed….. (and a bit further) they live on buttermilk, potatoes, whiskey and political excitement”……. I mean are you kidding me? Like what is this? This has got to be the most British description of the Irish I have ever read. It is so stereotypical that I cant help but imagine a few old English aristocrats nipping their tea and say “quite right, those shiftless Irish are no good at all.” I can’t help but wonder what the hell Wells was thinking, was this a joke? It leaves me bewildered.
A few other things, in this timeline the USA falls apart and the president wants to turn back to the English crown, India returns to barbarity as the UK retreats from Asia. While Japan focus solely on conquering China and the French and Poles beat the Germans. I mean those first two makes me see a pattern here of placating to the most base superiority complexes of Britain rules the waves and the second, well that second two is not that far-fetched. Japan had indeed been guided by an army directive to conquer mainland Asia for their resource hunger, it was only later that they switched gears and went for the navy’s take the islands warfare. Then, if the French had pushed immediately at the moment Germany declared war on Poland? Well who knows? Nobody could predict the USSR and nazi Germany pact on Poland in 1933. And this is my dilemma, the book has these extremes of reasonable ideas and predictions and then has these weird absurd chauvinistic statements. I can’t help but wonder that Wells at this point was grasping for the nostalgic memory of the UK in 1900’s world order where its control over India was far les disputed, the Irish part of the UK and the country as a whole not so dependent on the USA economy.
I could not continue reading this but those who are looking for a glimpse in futurism form the interbellum will find this enlightening and revealing. Then it did make me think about a few other things. The idea of the air dictatorship is something that in the 1990ties would make a serious comeback with Steampunk as would the idea of warblasted world kept together by a cabal of engineers out for scarce resources (or plundered by insane marauders in mad max). Then it also made me think about Warhammer 40K where the premise of that extensive massive lore is that mankind grew depended on robots and AI to colonize the universe until they revolted and which brought an age of barbarism over the galaxy prompting the rise of the emperor and his genetically enhanced super soldiers, the adaptus astartes. This idea of great devastation awaits us not despite but because of the technology we embrace is not a dead idea, it is quite common.
Not for me but I do believe that there is quite a lot here to be analyzed by those interested in the ideas circulating around in the 1930ties.
The shape of things to come is basically H G Wells’s Thomas More Utopia or Voltaire’s Micromégas. It is the supposedly truthful transcription of the dreams of a diplomat form the league of nations, dreams sent to him from the far future of 2106ish. Like Thomas More and Voltaire, Wells uses the vehicle of a visitor to tell us about what is awaiting us and in doing so telling us what might be what he whishes to happen? See I am not sure, at times it sure felt as serious prediction but other times it felt as if HG Wells was writing a huge pile of worldbuilding material for later scifi books. This poses a dilemma for us as modern readers; do we look at it as a serious prediction? Or as worldbuilding material? I am going to do a bit of both because I honestly can’t tell what it really is.
All science fiction is setting out predicting the future and that is the fun of it really, to tell a story of how the world will look like if one tweaks certain aspects of society or one adds something new to the mix. The shape of things to come however does not do the second thing that sci fi does, it does not give us a story. The book is without a protagonist through whose eyes we explore this world, whose knowledge and assumptions color the world for us to be guided by. The style leaves much to be desired; paragraph length sentences, monotone, dry and slow paced. This is why I say it feels as worldbuilding material, there is plenty of stuff here that would make the perfect background for a sci fi story, but that is all it is, the background.
As I said at the start, I did not read the whole book but did read chunks all over to get a grasp of the timeline. What it basically boils down to is that a second world war of ten years in length (1940-1950) started by Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy results in a global implosion of society. Famine, poverty, destruction and devastation leads to mutinies like the 1917 october revolution but also to outbreak of new super pandemics that kill off half of the world population. The world breaks down to segments and pockets isolated from one another, the global society as Wells new it in the late 19th and early 20th disappears. Only a few hideouts of technology, governance and vision remain, most importantly the aviators. For that is where Wells sees the future dynamic, not with the communist or capitalist nor the classic sovereign nation, but in a global technocratic movement, the socalled air dictatorship who by use of their expertise and power force the world to submit to their new world order. A world order that by 2100 leads to a new biological epoch of mankind and transition to a mindhive.
Well that is a lot isn’t it? I mean we can all snobly point out that obviously none of this happened but I do see some things that have come up with Wells before. Readers of the war of the worlds know about the role of germs in that book. The time machine also gave us a world where the human race had underwent an evolutionary change and there society had broken down as well. Well has written about the air dictatorship before in a book called “the war in the air” so in that sense this book combines quite a few of his ideas in one timeline. At the same time I was reminded by a book I read two years back, “alleen de wolken” by which talked about how immense society changed and was rocked by a bombardment of technological inventions and new political thinking between 1918 and 1940 and how in particular people who had been adults in the late 19th century must have been bewildered by how different the world had become and how uncertain and tumultuous the future looked. This book does seem to confirm that premise.
Having said all that, there are a few things in this book that is bound to make people stare at their page for a while. “ at the other extreme were the shiftless Irish. Until the return of production their fysical misery was very great indeed….. (and a bit further) they live on buttermilk, potatoes, whiskey and political excitement”……. I mean are you kidding me? Like what is this? This has got to be the most British description of the Irish I have ever read. It is so stereotypical that I cant help but imagine a few old English aristocrats nipping their tea and say “quite right, those shiftless Irish are no good at all.” I can’t help but wonder what the hell Wells was thinking, was this a joke? It leaves me bewildered.
A few other things, in this timeline the USA falls apart and the president wants to turn back to the English crown, India returns to barbarity as the UK retreats from Asia. While Japan focus solely on conquering China and the French and Poles beat the Germans. I mean those first two makes me see a pattern here of placating to the most base superiority complexes of Britain rules the waves and the second, well that second two is not that far-fetched. Japan had indeed been guided by an army directive to conquer mainland Asia for their resource hunger, it was only later that they switched gears and went for the navy’s take the islands warfare. Then, if the French had pushed immediately at the moment Germany declared war on Poland? Well who knows? Nobody could predict the USSR and nazi Germany pact on Poland in 1933. And this is my dilemma, the book has these extremes of reasonable ideas and predictions and then has these weird absurd chauvinistic statements. I can’t help but wonder that Wells at this point was grasping for the nostalgic memory of the UK in 1900’s world order where its control over India was far les disputed, the Irish part of the UK and the country as a whole not so dependent on the USA economy.
I could not continue reading this but those who are looking for a glimpse in futurism form the interbellum will find this enlightening and revealing. Then it did make me think about a few other things. The idea of the air dictatorship is something that in the 1990ties would make a serious comeback with Steampunk as would the idea of warblasted world kept together by a cabal of engineers out for scarce resources (or plundered by insane marauders in mad max). Then it also made me think about Warhammer 40K where the premise of that extensive massive lore is that mankind grew depended on robots and AI to colonize the universe until they revolted and which brought an age of barbarism over the galaxy prompting the rise of the emperor and his genetically enhanced super soldiers, the adaptus astartes. This idea of great devastation awaits us not despite but because of the technology we embrace is not a dead idea, it is quite common.
Not for me but I do believe that there is quite a lot here to be analyzed by those interested in the ideas circulating around in the 1930ties.
April 15, 2015
Book Based Entirely on Its Cover
Now, I had heard of H.G. Wells, and had seen some adaptations of his books into films. The amazing 1960s version of The Time Machine and the not-so-amazing War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. So, knowing the author did help, but in the end it really was the most intriguing and prettiest cover. And the book? Well, it ranged from “Wow, this is really interesting” to “Do I really have to read this thing?” throughout.
It’s Wells’ prediction of the future from the year 1933 to 2106, and tells an interesting story about what futurists in the 1933s made of a worse and better world. It’s also an interesting thought-experiment as to what makes a civilisation work and crumble. The subject matter constantly interested me. Wells’ style of writing, less so. He decided to write this a retrospective history book, written by a phantom author from 2106. And so it has with the dryness of 1930s academia all over it.
It has however got me thinking about how most political movements seem to think of people solely in the context of their function in society. And I won’t elaborate anymore or I will be way over my word count. Suffice it say, this was a interesting book, though at points very droll. And if it hadn’t been part of a pre-existing challenge I may have abandoned it before finishing. But having concluded it, it’s been rewarding and intellectually stimulating.
Now, I had heard of H.G. Wells, and had seen some adaptations of his books into films. The amazing 1960s version of The Time Machine and the not-so-amazing War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. So, knowing the author did help, but in the end it really was the most intriguing and prettiest cover. And the book? Well, it ranged from “Wow, this is really interesting” to “Do I really have to read this thing?” throughout.
It’s Wells’ prediction of the future from the year 1933 to 2106, and tells an interesting story about what futurists in the 1933s made of a worse and better world. It’s also an interesting thought-experiment as to what makes a civilisation work and crumble. The subject matter constantly interested me. Wells’ style of writing, less so. He decided to write this a retrospective history book, written by a phantom author from 2106. And so it has with the dryness of 1930s academia all over it.
It has however got me thinking about how most political movements seem to think of people solely in the context of their function in society. And I won’t elaborate anymore or I will be way over my word count. Suffice it say, this was a interesting book, though at points very droll. And if it hadn’t been part of a pre-existing challenge I may have abandoned it before finishing. But having concluded it, it’s been rewarding and intellectually stimulating.
April 17, 2022
I really don’t know what to think. In some ways I enjoyed the speculation and range of ideas set out by Wells albeit they seem rather naive from the perspective of 2022. As Orwell comments about this book, most sensible people would generally agree with what Wells proposes but it seems so unrealistic that nobody would give it serious thought. A future in which humanity is at peace with itself seems desirable but to be honest what would there be to strive and live for? The things I don’t like about this book probably relate to it being written 100 or so years ago. The style is tedious, long pompous paragraphs full of description that doesn’t move things on, and transparent putting of Wells’s views into the mouths of others. Without a clear protagonist the book drags, and it was struggle to complete in a little under 3 weeks.
So on balance 4 stars as I did enjoy it, made copious notes and learned a lot. This is an overtly political book, leaving no doubt about the author’s opinions and perhaps isn’t up to the standard of his work when much younger. Nevertheless the dispute between Orwell and Wells documented in many articles is fascinating and this is a good clear example of Wells’s side of it. Chris
So on balance 4 stars as I did enjoy it, made copious notes and learned a lot. This is an overtly political book, leaving no doubt about the author’s opinions and perhaps isn’t up to the standard of his work when much younger. Nevertheless the dispute between Orwell and Wells documented in many articles is fascinating and this is a good clear example of Wells’s side of it. Chris
July 29, 2018
Description: "When a diplomat dies in the 1930s, he leaves behind a book of 'dream visions' he has been experiencing, detailing events that will occur on Earth for the next 200 years. This fictional account of the future (similar to Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon) proved prescient in many ways, as Wells predicts events such as World War II, the rise of chemical warfare, and climate change."
February 5, 2020
Loses a star for being dry (and boy is it dry - Wells has a lot of ideas to share, and not a minute to waste making it entertaining), but this is HUGE on ideas. Now, admittedly, some of those ideas are how useless women and the Irish are, but one doesn't have to accept or condone those shortcomings to find the rest of it fascinating.
The back cover of my copy perhaps overplays how prescient it is - one wouldn't have had to be a genius in 1933 to anticipate a second European conflict, for example (and there's occasional hilarity, such as when he hypothesises about 22nd century historians listening to gramaphone recordings of events in the 1980s). But in terms of humanity's potential, the vast rewriting of our priorities and structural organisation that could yield unbelievable rewards, it remains nothing less than inspirational. Living in an age of rising far-right nationalism and UK isolationism, it's incendiary to read Wells' writing on the wastefulness of hatred and the need to abandon national borders in favour of human unity. Pie-in-the-sky fantasy or a blueprint for humanity's salvation, this deserves to be read, and is as relevant now in 2018 as it ever has been.
The back cover of my copy perhaps overplays how prescient it is - one wouldn't have had to be a genius in 1933 to anticipate a second European conflict, for example (and there's occasional hilarity, such as when he hypothesises about 22nd century historians listening to gramaphone recordings of events in the 1980s). But in terms of humanity's potential, the vast rewriting of our priorities and structural organisation that could yield unbelievable rewards, it remains nothing less than inspirational. Living in an age of rising far-right nationalism and UK isolationism, it's incendiary to read Wells' writing on the wastefulness of hatred and the need to abandon national borders in favour of human unity. Pie-in-the-sky fantasy or a blueprint for humanity's salvation, this deserves to be read, and is as relevant now in 2018 as it ever has been.
April 23, 2011
I started this book hoping to find some interesting futuristic inventions and to see how accurate H.G. Wells' predictions were. There were certainly some interesting insights into the 1940s, as well as the general progressioon of society in our own time (if with very widely different happenings inbetween). However, this was less a prediction of the future as a warning of what could happen under capitalism and a social commentary of changing times. It was interesting to read different views of capitalism and socialism than my own, as well as to hear arguments for social control. It certainly wasn't a quick read, but it was well worth the effort to understand this 'text book of the future'.
February 15, 2013
This story is one of mind boggling possibilities and shows an insite to how the world was seen by H G Wells in his insight to the future. To some degree he has already been vindicated with some of the things he foresaw. This story although written many nyears ago is till worthy of a read and one to compare with the modern writers who write about the future.
Shelved as 'we-re-done-here'
June 15, 2017It is 1929. A grand old man of the League of Nations Secretariat is afflicted with a recurring nightmare: every morning he is stranded between wakefulness and sleep reading a history of the next 86 years narrated by someone who read that Stapledon fellow's future history but felt it didn't spend enough time talking about how right HG Wells is about everything.
July 23, 2010
Inspired by the 1936 movie I looked forward to reading this for
more insights on the great plagues, wars and catastrophes of
the future as well as the great hopes of rebuilding, however
I found it pretty dry and had to work at getting through it all.
June 22, 2018
The Shape of Things to Come: Or, The Big (Faux) Textbook
First and foremost: that was such a slog to get through. Come on, H.G., give me a little fun. Maybe a joke here or there? This speculative fiction read more like a textbook that your college professor assigned to you in preparation for a final. I felt like I was studying and for a class that doesn't even exist. And, most of this book is just predictions of a future that hasn't come to pass. He did get some things right, but mostly he was incorrect.
Besides this being super long and super boring in parts, a lot of interesting points are made that especially ring true today. I don't want to get political, but a lot of H.G.'s points about Hitler sound like a certain President today. There is no denying that H.G. Wells was a brilliant man and was very keen on humanity and society.
Some quotes that stood out:
"Why did humanity gape at the guns and do nothing?"
"When the existing governments and ruling theories of life, the decaying religious and the decaying political forms of today, have sufficiently lost prestige through failure and catastrophe, then and then only will world-wide reconstruction be possible."
History has a tendency to repeat itself all too often. Now, take out your #2 pencils and prepare for a pop quiz because I know everyone read this textbook very thoroughly!
First and foremost: that was such a slog to get through. Come on, H.G., give me a little fun. Maybe a joke here or there? This speculative fiction read more like a textbook that your college professor assigned to you in preparation for a final. I felt like I was studying and for a class that doesn't even exist. And, most of this book is just predictions of a future that hasn't come to pass. He did get some things right, but mostly he was incorrect.
Besides this being super long and super boring in parts, a lot of interesting points are made that especially ring true today. I don't want to get political, but a lot of H.G.'s points about Hitler sound like a certain President today. There is no denying that H.G. Wells was a brilliant man and was very keen on humanity and society.
Some quotes that stood out:
"Why did humanity gape at the guns and do nothing?"
"When the existing governments and ruling theories of life, the decaying religious and the decaying political forms of today, have sufficiently lost prestige through failure and catastrophe, then and then only will world-wide reconstruction be possible."
History has a tendency to repeat itself all too often. Now, take out your #2 pencils and prepare for a pop quiz because I know everyone read this textbook very thoroughly!
July 4, 2021
An essay masqueraded as a novel. Ugh.
September 20, 2022
DNF. I surrender.
Death by fatigue.
Complete drudgery.
Death by fatigue.
Complete drudgery.
August 10, 2021
Let me start by saying that I've never read the book. I've also noticed that, based on other reviews, the book tends to be a bit dry, rambling and preachy. That said, this is the audio adaptation from Big Finish, and it was rather good. Instead of a series of dreams, this treats the messenger as an inhabitant of an alternate timeline where all the events shown in the story did occur. It's an interesting and somewhat enjoyable ride. The thing that I'm most impressed by is how close Wells is in predicting World War II, given that the original book was published in 1933. Anyway, this is definitely worth a listen for fans of alternate history or H.G. Wells.
October 11, 2012
This was hard going and took me six weeks to read. I've made extensive notes. The psudo-academic style caused me the most difficulty. A narrative is certainly easier.
April 19, 2021
This took me over a year to read
December 20, 2022
A few days ago, I realized I had a perception problem: I got 40 pages into The Shape of Things to Come, and had a hard time thinking of it as a novel. My brain, from then on, would not recognize it as a novel. This seemed kind of amusing at first, but I realized over the next few days that I had a serious problem. It started when I put the book down beside an avocado - and then when I wanted to read again, I looked over, reached over, and read the avocado for about twenty minutes before I realized I had picked up the wrong thing. It seems my brain, confronted with an avocado and The Shape of Things to Come, couldn’t distinguish between them which was a novel, and which was not. In fact - according to someone who is either a doctor or is not - my brain had so rejected The Shape of Things to Come as what constitutes a novel, that even an avocado could seem more like a novel.
This happened again with the toilet scrubber, the cat, a cereal box, molasses (especially hard to distinguish The Shape of Things to Come from molasses), and auntie Zelda when she called me on the phone and soon after told me to stop trying to read her like a book.
I never did get back to thinking of this Wells book as a novel - I just think of it as some strange thing. My 4-star rating is a private, personal feeling, and not indicative of how much I actually recommend the book. I think I recommend linguine with molasses and the toilet scrubber, or auntie Zelda on the phone, ahead of this book. If you are ever sorting through my highly rated books for reading ideas, don’t start here. If you haven’t read H. G. Wells yet, and want to start somewhere…end here. Heck, if you want a compelling 4-star Radium Age Science Fiction novel that is actually a non-novel, check out Meccania: The Super-State, by Owen Gregory. And if that SHORTER example of anti-novel writing creates morbid fascination in you, read some pastrami next, and then you are ready for The Shape of Things to Come.
Me, I just wish for the world Wells ended up wishing for. I want the revolution in thinking he wanted, but it’s always just going to be Science Fiction - not real. IMO, anyway…sigh. So Wells’ proposed “future” of 1933-2105 was my kind of some strange thing. And I too wish for all the greedy, self-serving dopes to fail and fade away over time - so Wells and I have that in common (plus, when it comes to its greedy dopes content, I just realized why the book does resemble a toilet scrubber - so I wasn’t so wrong, in that case).
This happened again with the toilet scrubber, the cat, a cereal box, molasses (especially hard to distinguish The Shape of Things to Come from molasses), and auntie Zelda when she called me on the phone and soon after told me to stop trying to read her like a book.
I never did get back to thinking of this Wells book as a novel - I just think of it as some strange thing. My 4-star rating is a private, personal feeling, and not indicative of how much I actually recommend the book. I think I recommend linguine with molasses and the toilet scrubber, or auntie Zelda on the phone, ahead of this book. If you are ever sorting through my highly rated books for reading ideas, don’t start here. If you haven’t read H. G. Wells yet, and want to start somewhere…end here. Heck, if you want a compelling 4-star Radium Age Science Fiction novel that is actually a non-novel, check out Meccania: The Super-State, by Owen Gregory. And if that SHORTER example of anti-novel writing creates morbid fascination in you, read some pastrami next, and then you are ready for The Shape of Things to Come.
Me, I just wish for the world Wells ended up wishing for. I want the revolution in thinking he wanted, but it’s always just going to be Science Fiction - not real. IMO, anyway…sigh. So Wells’ proposed “future” of 1933-2105 was my kind of some strange thing. And I too wish for all the greedy, self-serving dopes to fail and fade away over time - so Wells and I have that in common (plus, when it comes to its greedy dopes content, I just realized why the book does resemble a toilet scrubber - so I wasn’t so wrong, in that case).
May 5, 2023
This is a difficult book to read. I've started it to gain some insight into Huxley's Brave New World and Island, which were supposedly influenced and influenced in turn Wells' writing, but I quickly lost my way and fell into the rabbithole that's The Shape of Things to Come. Admittedly, its scholarly tone, dry explanation of events and historical narrative turned out to be quite difficult to parse, especially in combination of old english and me being a not-native English speaker. I read only the first and the last part of the book, as I wasn't that much interested in history or how the Modern Government came to be, being focused on Wells' vision of Utopia at the end.
It's...definitely something. Colorful, creative, stunningly far-reaching while at the same time grudingly keeping itself on the ground. Now I understand why people called Huxley's ideas 'sterile.' In comparison to Brave New World, The Shape of Things to Come is vastly richer in thought and ideas, although lack of dramatic narrative makes it far harder to read. You won't find here important characters, dramatic turns of events or fascinating exchange of words - only history of the future.
Wells' ideas of the future align a lot with transhumanist and post-humanist thinking of his time - actually, I believe Huxley's brother Julian hadn't yet released his essay containing the first usage of the word 'Transhumanism' at the time of writing this book. It's definitely here in the spirit, though, expressed mostly in the idea of eugenics - which must be mentioned to be distinctly non-racist in nature, focusing wholely on the betterment of humanity as a whole, the view that Julian Huxley also shared and took part into imparting onto United Nations.
I don't write this review to spoil or summarize the book - you're better off reading it, at least in parts that interest you. Damn sure it will be better written than this review. From myself I can only advice to read the parts that interest you, it's a big and wordy book otherwise.
You want WW1 and the between-war period, read the first chapters.
Post 1933 and the fictional catastrophe on Earth that gives rise to Modern State, read everything past that except for the last section.
You want Wells' vision of socialist utopia with enlightened mankind that controls all of Earth and reaps its bounty to the betterment of everyone, while at the same time still dealing with some issues that appear hard to resolve - Read the last chapter. It's worth reading if only for that.
It's...definitely something. Colorful, creative, stunningly far-reaching while at the same time grudingly keeping itself on the ground. Now I understand why people called Huxley's ideas 'sterile.' In comparison to Brave New World, The Shape of Things to Come is vastly richer in thought and ideas, although lack of dramatic narrative makes it far harder to read. You won't find here important characters, dramatic turns of events or fascinating exchange of words - only history of the future.
Wells' ideas of the future align a lot with transhumanist and post-humanist thinking of his time - actually, I believe Huxley's brother Julian hadn't yet released his essay containing the first usage of the word 'Transhumanism' at the time of writing this book. It's definitely here in the spirit, though, expressed mostly in the idea of eugenics - which must be mentioned to be distinctly non-racist in nature, focusing wholely on the betterment of humanity as a whole, the view that Julian Huxley also shared and took part into imparting onto United Nations.
I don't write this review to spoil or summarize the book - you're better off reading it, at least in parts that interest you. Damn sure it will be better written than this review. From myself I can only advice to read the parts that interest you, it's a big and wordy book otherwise.
You want WW1 and the between-war period, read the first chapters.
Post 1933 and the fictional catastrophe on Earth that gives rise to Modern State, read everything past that except for the last section.
You want Wells' vision of socialist utopia with enlightened mankind that controls all of Earth and reaps its bounty to the betterment of everyone, while at the same time still dealing with some issues that appear hard to resolve - Read the last chapter. It's worth reading if only for that.
March 21, 2018
This would have been more interesting to read at the time it was written. Obviously the future envisioned by Wells did not come to pass, and, in retrospect (so easy!), it appears improbable. Although he predicted war in 1940, in his vision the Poles were the aggressors who invaded Germany. Various plagues and failures of capitalism finally lead to a dawning realization of a more global, socialistic outlook of mankind. Global control of air transport results in the "Air Dictatorship" that eventually (in a rather totalitarian fashion) enforces this new evolution/revolution of the world. The vision ends in the 22nd century, and apparently people are happy with their new life.
Having lived through the horrors of the World War, Wells clearly shows his disgust with business as usual in the post war period, that resulted in the Depression. Sick of countries and nationalism he envisions a world governmental Utopia, and then charts out how to get there.
The story, if you can call it that, is framed as a series of dreams, but the story elements are minimal. A few characters emerge and there is a bit of drama, but all told this is written like a history book and a rather dry one at that. Wells incorporates a lot of contemporary writing into the book, which seamlessly blends with the made-up literature of the future. He doesn't hesitate to assign death dates of at the time living writers like Aldous Huxley, which I'm not sure was a very popular thing to do. He does muster up quite a bit of verisimilitude in his names and events of the future. To the modern reader however, much of this is quite dry and repetitive (by modern reader I mean me).
Wikipedia comments that the book may have inspired the Encyclopedia Galactica and the Psychohistory of Asimov, as well as the Future History of Heinlein, and there may be some truth to that. Overall it is a strange work that is difficult to recommend.
Having lived through the horrors of the World War, Wells clearly shows his disgust with business as usual in the post war period, that resulted in the Depression. Sick of countries and nationalism he envisions a world governmental Utopia, and then charts out how to get there.
The story, if you can call it that, is framed as a series of dreams, but the story elements are minimal. A few characters emerge and there is a bit of drama, but all told this is written like a history book and a rather dry one at that. Wells incorporates a lot of contemporary writing into the book, which seamlessly blends with the made-up literature of the future. He doesn't hesitate to assign death dates of at the time living writers like Aldous Huxley, which I'm not sure was a very popular thing to do. He does muster up quite a bit of verisimilitude in his names and events of the future. To the modern reader however, much of this is quite dry and repetitive (by modern reader I mean me).
Wikipedia comments that the book may have inspired the Encyclopedia Galactica and the Psychohistory of Asimov, as well as the Future History of Heinlein, and there may be some truth to that. Overall it is a strange work that is difficult to recommend.
February 28, 2018
A book of dream visions from a recently deceased League of Nations diplomat named Doctor Phillip Raven describes future events from about 1930 to 2100. The predicted future is a highly detailed account that proves prescient in many ways, extending past our current time into the transition to a Golden Age.
In the Shape of Things to Come, H.G. Wells looks into the future and discusses political theory in this thinly-veiled political manifesto. In fact, the plot is merely a frame story that interjects so sporadically that its mostly distracting from the political point in question.
H.G. Wells is a fantastic historian, and if his commentary on recent events of World War I and the roaring twenties is insightful, his prediction of the players, causes, and timing of World War II is incredible. He didn’t get every detail correct, but it begs the question of whether Wells was an extraordinarily astute student of current events, or if a large population of the time could have made the same predictions. However, as the predictions move further into the 20th century, he misses the mark more and more, as you might expect.
It’s not fair to judge a book on the author’s ability to see the future, but the climax of the “story” examines how the Modern State, in which an egalitarian world government rules a human population without hunger or gambling or unemployment, comes to be. The future state seems like a place of leisure with infinite resources, but also full of eugenically engineered people in which women have no positions of authority.
Unfortunately, the majority of the book is tedious and rambling, especially if you are looking for a science fiction story with a plot and a protagonist. In fact, it’s downright boring most of the time.
Recommended for fans of history and political theory, and for superfans of H.G Wells!
readwellreviews.com
In the Shape of Things to Come, H.G. Wells looks into the future and discusses political theory in this thinly-veiled political manifesto. In fact, the plot is merely a frame story that interjects so sporadically that its mostly distracting from the political point in question.
H.G. Wells is a fantastic historian, and if his commentary on recent events of World War I and the roaring twenties is insightful, his prediction of the players, causes, and timing of World War II is incredible. He didn’t get every detail correct, but it begs the question of whether Wells was an extraordinarily astute student of current events, or if a large population of the time could have made the same predictions. However, as the predictions move further into the 20th century, he misses the mark more and more, as you might expect.
It’s not fair to judge a book on the author’s ability to see the future, but the climax of the “story” examines how the Modern State, in which an egalitarian world government rules a human population without hunger or gambling or unemployment, comes to be. The future state seems like a place of leisure with infinite resources, but also full of eugenically engineered people in which women have no positions of authority.
Unfortunately, the majority of the book is tedious and rambling, especially if you are looking for a science fiction story with a plot and a protagonist. In fact, it’s downright boring most of the time.
Recommended for fans of history and political theory, and for superfans of H.G Wells!
readwellreviews.com
January 19, 2021
This story reads like non-fiction. You might be tempted to skip the forward, but it is essential for understanding the book as fiction. The preface tells that a friend dreamed of a history book of the future.
The story is organized into five books that cover real history before the writing of the story, and for a couple hundred years afterwards. The first books are interesting if you like history. H.G. Wells tells his version of history from World War 1, through foreshadowing of World War 2. It is worth reading book 1 and 2 if you are interested in that. His imagined future is mixed into those books, but you can take it with a grain of salt.
Books 3 to 5 read like a manifesto. H.G. Wells makes the case for a New World Order by talking about the processes that he imagines will bring it about. He promotes a managed economy such as in socialism. He goes into excruciating detail about many things. It is hard to follow.
H.G. Wells got some predictions very close to right. He predicted something like Wikipedia and he was only a few years off the dates. He correctly predicted that German and Poland would set off fighting of a new war (WW2.)
Book 5 has ideas about where society is headed. Many of those ideas match with how society changed. However, many of the things he told didn’t come about. Therefore, this should be read as one man’s hopes and fears for the future. Take it in the context of the time that he wrote it.
The story is organized into five books that cover real history before the writing of the story, and for a couple hundred years afterwards. The first books are interesting if you like history. H.G. Wells tells his version of history from World War 1, through foreshadowing of World War 2. It is worth reading book 1 and 2 if you are interested in that. His imagined future is mixed into those books, but you can take it with a grain of salt.
Books 3 to 5 read like a manifesto. H.G. Wells makes the case for a New World Order by talking about the processes that he imagines will bring it about. He promotes a managed economy such as in socialism. He goes into excruciating detail about many things. It is hard to follow.
H.G. Wells got some predictions very close to right. He predicted something like Wikipedia and he was only a few years off the dates. He correctly predicted that German and Poland would set off fighting of a new war (WW2.)
Book 5 has ideas about where society is headed. Many of those ideas match with how society changed. However, many of the things he told didn’t come about. Therefore, this should be read as one man’s hopes and fears for the future. Take it in the context of the time that he wrote it.
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